EXPERIMENTS FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE SOPHIC MERCURY, BY LUNA AND THE ANTIMONIAL STELLATE REGULUS OF MARS, FOR THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE.

1. The Secret of the Philosophic Arsenic.

I took one part of the Fiery Dragon, and of the Magnetical Body two parts; I prepared them together by a strong fire, and in the first fusion there was made about eight ounces of the true arsenic.

2. The Secret of Prepaying the Mercury with his Arsenic for the Separating its Fæces.

I did take one part of the best arsenic, and I made a marriage with two parts of the Virgin Diana into one body; I ground it very fine, and with this I have prepared my Mercury, working them altogether in heat, until that they were most exquisitely incorporated; then I purged it with the salt of urine, that the fæces did separate, which I put away.

3. The Purification of the Sophic Mercury.

The Mercury, thus prepared, is yet infected with an external uncleanness, wherefore distil it three or four times in its proper alembic, with its steel cucurbit; then wash it with the salt of urine until that it be clear and bright, and in its motion leaves no tail behind it.

4. Another most excellent Purgation.

Take of decrepit salt, and of the Scoriæ of Mars, of each ten ounces, of prepared Mercury one ounce and a-half; grind the salt and the Scoriæ very fine together, in a marble mortar; then put in the Mercury, and grind it with vinegar, so long until no more of the Mercury appears. Put it into a glass body, and distil it by sand in a glass alembic, until all the Mercury be ascended pure, clear, and splendidly bright; reiterate this three times, and you will have the Mercury excellently well prepared for the Magistery.

5. The Secret of the just Preparation of the Sophic Mercury.

Every single preparation of the Mercury with its arsenic is one Eagle; the Feathers of the Eagle being purged from their crow-like blackness, make it to fly the seventh flight, and it is prepared even until the tenth flight.

6. The Secret of the Sophic Mercury.

I have taken the proper quantity of the ☿, and I mixed it with its true arsenic, to wit, about four ounces of Mercury, and I made a thin commixed consistence; I purged it after a due manner, and I distilled it, and I had a pure body of Lune, whence I knew that I had rightly prepared it. Afterwards I added to its weight of arsenic, and I increased its former weight of Mercury, in so much that the Mercury might prevail to a thin flux, and so I purged it, to the washing of the blackness almost to a lunary whiteness. Then I took half an ounce of the arsenic, of which I made a due marriage; I added it to this betrothed Mercury, and there was made a temperature like potter's loam, but a little thinner; I purged it again, after a due manner; the purgation was laborious, and a long time. I made it with the salt of urine which I have found to be the best in this work.

7. Another Purgation, but yet better.

I have found out a better way of purging it, with vinegar and pure sea salt, so that in the space of half-a-day I can prepare one Eagle: I made the first Eagle to fly, and Diana is left, with a little tincture of brass. I began the second Eagle by removing the superfluities, and then I made it fly, and again the Doves of Diana are left, with the tincture of brass. I conjoined the third Eagle, and I purged the superfluities, by removing them, even to a whiteness; then I made it fly, and there was left a great part of brass, with the Doves of Diana. Then I made it fly twice by itself, to the whole extraction of all the body. Then I joined the fourth Eagle, by adding more and more of its own humour by degrees, and there was made a very temperate consistence, in which there was no Hydrops (or superfluous moisture) as there was in the former Eagles.

8. I have found the best way of Preparing the Sophie Mercury, viz., such as follows:

The amalgamated mass, espoused or joined very intimately by a due marriage, I put into a crucible, and into a furnace of sand for half-an-hour, but so that it may not sublime; then I take it out, and strongly grind it; then I put it again in a crucible, and in the furnace, and after a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, I grind it again, and I make the mortar hot. By this means the amalgam begins to be clean, and to cast forth a great deal of powder. Then I put it in the crucible again, and to the fire as before, for a convenient time, so that it be not sublimed: otherwise the greater the fire is, the better it is; so continually putting it in the tire, and continually grinding it, till almost all the powder Both wholly disappear; then I wash it, and the fæces are easily cast out, and the amalgam becomes entire without any heterogeneity. Then I wash it with salt, and again do heat it and grind it. This I repeat to the full, cleansing it from all manner of fæces.

9. A Threefold Trial of the Goodness of the Prepared Mercury.

Take thy Mercury prepared with its arsenic of seven, eight, nine, or ten Eagles; put it into a phial, and thou shalt lute it with the Lutum Sapientiæ. Place it in a furnace of sand, and let it stand in a heat of sublimation, so that it may ascend and descend in the glass, until it be coagulated a little thicker than butter. Continue it unto a perfect coagulation, until it be as white as silver.

10. Another Trial.

If by shaking it in a glass with the salt of urine, it be turned into an impalpable white powder of its own accord, so that it doth not appear as Mercury, and of its own accord, in a hot and dry place, it coagulates again into a thin Mercury, it is enough: but yet better if being agitated in fountain water, it runs into small heads or particles; for if the grain be in the body it will not be thus converted and separated into small minute parts.

11. The Third Trial.

Distil it in a glass alembic, from a glass cucurbit; if it passes over and leaves nothing behind it, it is a good mineral water.

12. The Extraction of the Sulphur from the living Mercury by Separation.

Take thy mixed corporal and spiritual compound, the body of which is coagulated of the volatile by digestion, and separate the Mercury from its Sulphur by a glass still, and thou shalt have a white Luna fixed and resisting Aqua fortis, and more ponderous than common silver.

13. The Magical Sol out of this Luna.

Out of this white Sulphur, by fire, thou shalt have a yellow Sulphur, by a manual operation, which Sol is the Red Lead of the Philosophers.

14. Out of this Sulphur, Aurum Potabile.

Thou mayst turn this yellow Sulphur into an oil as red as blood, by circulating it with the Volatile-Mercurial-Philosophical Menstruum; so thou shalt have an admirable panacea, or universal medicine.

15. The Gross Conjunction of the Menstruum with its Sulphur, for the Formation of the Offspring of the Fire.

Take of thy purged, best, prepared, and choicest Mercury, of seven, eight, nine, or at most ten Eagles; mix it with the prepared Laton, or its Red Sulphur; that is to say, two parts of the water, or at the most three, with one of the pure Sulphur, ground and purged.

N.B.—But it is better that thou takest two parts to one.

16. The Working of the Mixture at a Manual Operation.

This thy mixture thou shalt grind very well upon a marble; then thou shalt wash it with vinegar and Sal Ammoniac, until it hath put off all its black fæces; then thou shalt wash off all its saltness and acrimony with clear fountain water; then shalt thou dry it upon clean white paper, by turning of it from place to place with the point of a knife, even unto an exquisite dryness.

17. The Putting in of the Fetus into the Philosophical Egg.

Now thy mixture being dried, put it into an oval glass, of the best and most transparent glass, of the bigness of a hen's egg; in such a glass let not thy matter exceed two ounces: seal it hermetically.

18. The Government of the Fire.

Then you must have a furnace built, in which you may keep an immortal fire; in it you shall make a heat of sand of the first degree, in which the dew of our compound may be elevated and circulated continually, day and night, without any intermission, etc. And in such a fire the body will die, and the spirit will be renewed; and at length the soul will be glorified and united with a new immortal and incorruptible body.